ON THE EDGE
Giving the Gift of Change
(The 12 Lessons of Christmas)
by Carl Pritchard, Pritchard Management Associates
Allow me a moment to delineate a few past presents. Socks. A mechanical Uncle Sam bank. A tape recorder. A gift certificate. A collection of little metal brain teaser puzzles that remain unsolved. A T-Shirt that reads: "Is Anal Retentive Hyphenated?"
Each of these represents a different "class" of Christmas present. Things I didn't want but probably need. Things I didn't want but now cherish. Things I wanted. Things I have trouble remembering. Things that seemed neat at first but really just frustrate me now. And things I think show that others really understand me.
Those different classes of presents should have a familiar ring to project managers. They also sound eerily like change. We make changes all the time. There are constructive changes, and changes that seem constructive but really just frustrate. There are changes that represent our vision and changes that represent the vision of our management (or the customer's management). There are changes made for change's sake and changes that truly enhance our lives and generate new possibilities.
When looking at change, we can draw some powerful lessons from the stack of Christmas gifts received through the years. For the sake of this discussion, think of the client or customer as the "recipient" of the gift, and the project organization as the "giver."
Lesson 1: Know the environment where the "gift" will be deployed.
Giving a starving person a plastic snow globe represents the height of a lack of understanding. We need to know the environment where the change will be deployed. If we understand the baseline culture and needs of the recipient, we won't make the mistake of implementing inappropriate changes.
Lesson 2: Know the recipient's approach to life/business well.
A friend of ours recently gave a holiday gift of cash to another friend in need to help cover the mortgage. The giver, very prudently, withheld his name from the recipient. Why? The recipient would never have accepted that much cash from a friend. She willingly accepted it, however, from a "secret Santa". The donor knew who would be dealing with the change and under what conditions the change would be acceptable.
Lesson 3: Give in doses that are reasonable.
Change may be welcome, but in volume, it can be downright damaging. Ever get a mountain of presents as an adult? It can be almost embarrassing. At best it's overwhelming. My wife found an interesting way to solve this: an advent "program of giving" for her sister. She got her sister a gift a day for the advent season. The myriad small gifts piled up and opened at once would have been almost onerous. Given over the weeks of Advent, it became a positive adventure. If we must implement a host of changes, we should think through how we can program them to suit the customer's calendar and timing.
Lesson 4: Give freely.
If you've ever participated in a gift exchange where some of the participants were unwilling, you know it can be downright awkward (and perhaps even painful). Yes, they offered presents. But they may as well have been offering dental exams. Similarly, we will have to implement changes. They are a necessity of project management. However, the attitude goes a long way toward determining whether or not we're perceived as supporters of the change or merely "along for the ride" in the client experience.
Lesson 5: Know your limits and theirs.
There's nothing worse than giving a fruitcake to someone who in turn gives you a Rolex® watch. If the client has a $20,000 budget, be careful not to recommend a $100,000 change.
Lesson 6: Make it personal.
Change is not a personal experience, but it represents personal stakes and personal interests. Since the client asked for the change, we should strive to make it look, act, feel, smell or be the way it was envisioned. And assuming it's a constructive change, don't be afraid to trumpet it as [trumpet fanfare here] "(CUSTOMER'S NAME)'s Change!!!"
Lesson 7: Make it usable.
Some gifts require coaching. If you gave my wife's grandfather a high-end computing workstation, he might use it to produce a document or two. But ask him to edit and burn a few DVDs, and he'd be out of his league. When we offer changes, we need to make sure that the recipient is ready for them, knows how to apply them and understands the nature of the beast. If they don't, we may take what was a perfectly acceptable environment and rework it to be annoying and unusable.
Lesson 8: Reassess the environment.
Earlier, I stressed the need to look at the environment for your change. If you haven't done so lately, do it again! Every year, we bought by father-in-law tools for the holidays. In the past two years, his eyesight has begun to fail. It leads to a completely different tack for gift-giving. The client is the same, the wants and needs are much the same, but the environment has changed. Now, virtually all gifts are channeled to meet a new set of needs. We need to be sure we're looking at the client we have today, and not the one we had several years ago.
Lesson 9: Incorporate those who you support.
Gift-giving and change both often rely on outsiders. Salespeople, vendors, subcontractors, delivery personnel all get involved in the process. Sometimes, in the haste of the season (of change) we forget who our best supporters have been on the other side. Change opens doors, not just for us, but for those we truly appreciate working with. It's a great opportunity to share opportunities. Those vendors who have been faithful through the years and who have supported us should be the ones we support when new needs arise through change.
Lesson 10: Have it all? Offer alternatives.
Finding gifts for those who have it all is sometimes the greatest challenge for holiday shoppers. What about the clients who really don't need change? Maybe we can help them find the perfect surprise for them! Help them identify different options and improvements! Give them the opportunity to try something completely different! The trick is to explore the possibilities with the client first, before you decide on the perfect option.
Lesson 11: Consider the time/timing.
This year, I received one of the cleverest Christmas cards ever, and it wasn't even a Christmas card! It was a Thanksgiving card. In an effort to beat the rush and stand alone, a professional peer sent out Thanksgiving cards. Think of the implications. There's no risk of being politically incorrect. There's no chance of being lost in a sea of Christmas cards. There's no chance of offending those who celebrate Hanukkah or Kwanzaa. And, there was time to really read what was written on the card! It was an act of sheer brilliance. The ordinary was rendered extraordinary by timing alone. Similarly, when we accept changes, how we stage the timing of the changes and our ability to meet the planned time can make all the difference in the world in building positive relationships.
Lesson 12: Make it consistent with expectations.
"I got a $12,000 bonus!" "Oh, I got the Jelly-of-the-Month Club." There's the ultimate embarrassing moment. How horrible is that! You gave one child the ultimate toy and the other a dozen pairs of socks. There's a simple way to avoid that: Be consistent. If we handle all of our recipients with a reasonable level of equity and equanimity, we put ourselves in a position where we won't feel compelled to explain away how and why we do what we do. With change control, it's much the same story. Stick to the program and make it consistent. It makes life a whole lot easier to track.
Will these rules guarantee a better outcome for any gifts we might give? No. There are no guarantees. But will they ensure that we're doing what we can to make it more likely that changes are deployed well and cheerfully? Absolutely. These are ways to ensure that we build better relationships and have a better understanding of the directions our relationships are taking. And they open the door to examine changes in a different light. Instead of perceiving change as a hurdle or challenge to the customer relationship, we can begin to see it as a gift to be welcomed and given freely.
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